The World Psychiatric Association organized the Regional Congress for the first time in Kolkata. This mega academic event is being held for 4 days at the ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata.

Dr. Gautam Saha, President of the SAARC Psychiatric Federation & Organizing Chairperson of this Congress & Dr. G. Prasad Rao Chairperson Scientific Committee along with Afzal Javed graced the press conference.

More than 1000 delegates will attend the event from 14th-16th April 2023.

The President of the World Psychiatric Association, Prof Afzal Javed is personally attending the Conference in Kolkata.

The conference’s subject, Building Awareness, Building Treatment Gap, emphasizes the value of bringing together psychiatrists and other mental health experts and the need to provide a platform where patients’ and deeply traumatized people’s voices may be heard.

This topic was chosen with consideration for the significant 85% treatment gap in available mental health services. This troubling gap has fundamentally three basic causes, the first two of which are stigma and a poor doctor-to-patient ratio. Unfortunately, we only have 1:10,000 psychiatrists, and by closing this gap, we hope to attain our goal of 1:2,000 psychiatrists.

The Scientific Committee has arranged 225 hours of the academic program, with nearly 110 workshops, 86 symposiums, 120 free papers, 48 posters, and 11 pre-congress workshops.

This is one of the rare conferences organized by the World Psychiatric Association which is being attended by 4 Presidents of WPA, present and past. More than 10 different Psychiatric associations in different countries are represented by their Presidents.

A mental health awareness walk from Mohor Kunj was also organized.

More than 1000 delegates from 26 different countries and 5 continents are expected to attend this World Congress in Kolkata.

It is expected that by 2030, depression will become a huge disease in India. The doctors appreciate bringing attention to and raising awareness of mental health concerns among the general public because now is the chance to become advocates for people who suffer from mental illness.

Priyanka Dutta